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Indie games are booming lately, if you think you’re witnessing the fall of gaming you’re simply looking in the wrong place.
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Coelacanth
@Coelacanth@feddit.nu
Living fossil.
Also on: @coelacanth@aggregatet.org@coelacanth@piefed.social@coelacanth@fedia.io
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Joined July 04, 2023
Stealth Games Are Flawed (And Hard To Fix)
Stumbled upon this randomly today and thought it was surprisingly good, especially for the subscriber count. Particularly the bit about the inherent problem of save scumming in stealth games is something I’ve thought about writing about myself, but I guess someone else got there first, as this is pretty much an exact mirror of my thoughts.
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Cyberpunk and No Man’s Sky have already been mentioned, and honestly there aren’t going to be any real better examples than those two. They are the poster children for patient gaming for me.
My favourite patient game is probably Withering Rooms, which benefitted a lot from a long Early Access period. With the sequel entering early access yesterday it’s the perfect time to check it out!
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Don’t worry, they just need another 3-4 spinoffs and tie-in mobile games and the story will make perfect sense!
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It’s also a good patient gaming example, actually, because it was completely unplayable at launch and is only in a decent state now thanks to the Unofficial Patch.
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Dragonspear made by Beamdog, not the original creators. Beamdog have done a lot of good things when it comes to QoL, bug fixing and compatibility in the Enhanced Editions that helped bring these games to a new audience.
One thing they didn’t do good at, however, was writing.
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BG1 was a very important game, and it has some charm to it, but I personally don’t think it holds up all that well to be honest. The “exploration” involves a lot of just open empty forest zones. The companions are extremely bare bones, both in terms of dialogue/interjections/banter and in terms of quest content. The story is… fine. The whole iron crisis is kind of dry to me, not super compelling. Sarevok was awesome when I was 5, as an adult he’s not really all that compelling. The encounter design is pretty crap overall and yes, involves a lot of kiting or spamming Summon Monster.
Fortunately BG2 fixes almost all of that, and ended up delivering a benchmark CRPG that I think still is worthwhile to play and still (largely - it has some exceptions) holds up great.
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I’m being astronomically un-patient this week. Well, apart from using the “launch week 15% sale” loophole again to adhere to my endeavours to not pay full price for games.
Ever since playing Withering Rooms earlier this year and becoming completely enamored with it, I’ve had the sequel (Withering Realms) as my most anticipated game. So even though I tried to hold off, I simply couldn’t resist getting my hands on it when it entered Early Access.
Now, this is mostly an excuse for me to promote Withering Rooms again. It’s great, you should play it. I’m having a good time with the sequel, but it is definitely in need of more time in the oven. I trust this developer with my life, though, and have every conviction the game will get there come full release.
Most of the things that were great in the first game are here too: the setting, world building, lore, story, characters, art & design, atmosphere, vibes, puzzles, MUSIC (all composed by the solo dev!), build variety… There’s the bones for something great here.
There’s just a lot of polish still required. Some features are missing. Others are undercooked, almost placeholder-y. Combat balance is way off. Many encounters need tweaking. I’ve run into some performance hiccups and bugs. I’m still having a good time, because I love this world and developer so much, but for most sane people I would recommend waiting until full release. This is not a fake “early access” soft launch, this is an actual “open beta” type of early access. Only get in now if you want to participate in giving feedback on the Discord.
What I do recommend, however, is playing Withering Rooms. The first game is in an amazing state, feature complete and wonderful and brimming with character, charm, creativity and atmosphere. And it’s cheap!
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Have barely played any games this week, a few hours total if that.
I started on Roadwarden, and so far it looks promising. It’s very slow though. It is pretty much just a choose-your-own-adventure book. I’m liking the writing and the world building and setting, but it’s just walls of text upon walls of text. Not at all bad text (in fact it’s quite good), but I have to be in the mood for reading to sit down with it, not gaming.
I also played a bit more Wanted: Dead. Still not in love with it but I want to finish it before moving on to a new game. Let’s hope I can. The combat does get a bit better after you unlock most of the skill tree, but I would still not claim it to be good, even though it has its moments. And there are loads of questionable design decisions in there. It’s a very bizarre game in every way.
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If you want more complexity and challenges in the combat for your next playthrough Sword Coast Stratagems is an incredible mod. Mage chess in BG2 with that mod is super complex and intricate.
Replying to on aussie.zone
I was about to instantly wishlist this until I heard Capcom went and added Enigma DRM to it eight years after the release.
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I can’t believe you completely ignored the main quest of playing cards with everyone in favour of the RPG minigame they put in as a side activity.
Seriously though I love Gwent hahaha.
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How did you enjoy Metro Exodus? I’m going to get to it soonish, and I’m very curious after loving 2033 and having very mixed feelings about Last Light.
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Brother, there is no suspension of disbelief that can hold this shit together hahaha. It’s a shame because it’s sometimes managing to hit that “so bad it’s good” vibe, but too often it’s held back by the voice acting. It’s quite literally the worst I’ve ever heard and it fucks up the whole thing. It isn’t even bad in a hammy way to match the B-Movie vibe, it’s just… absolute garbage. Like people who have never acted before doing roles in their second language while cold reading their lines off the page over Skype bad.
I’m at the end of the Police HQ stage. I can’t tell if it’s a learning curve or just a fucked up progression, though. The first level was by far the hardest, but there’s just way too much shit locked behind the skill tree I think. Like, when I got to the 5 shield guy ambush after the miniboss in the first level I hadn’t yet unlocked any of the tools to deal with shield guys. Almost quit then and there.
I also kind of hate the sequences of huge gauntlets with no checkpoints. It’s not the kind of challenge I enjoy that much. I’m sure some do, and there are some elements of strategy and planning it requires of you that I’m sure some love. I don’t, really, though.
I’m also glad the game isn’t that long. I think this is the penultimate level. The lack of variety in melee and the combos and attacks you have is starting to feel noticeable.
Management games, strategy games, point-and-click games and isometric RPGs can all be played one-handed. Some might need spacebar (or whatever the pause button is) to a mouse thumb button for maximum comfort but that should be fine. Do any of these genres sound interesting?
EDIT: Card games should work great too, there is a vast ocean or deckbuilders out there!
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I only spent much time with the crane game, as that is the source of thousands of skill points and I wanted to unlock the skill tree faster. It’s weird that the rest of the minigames don’t give much in terms of rewards, but I’m not complaining.
Grenades are definitely important, and in an attempt to copy Ninja Gaiden it feels like those long gauntlets are meant to test routing and planning. You’re often punished for using grenades early, as there will come a later encounter before the checkpoint that almost require them, and sometimes it feels like it’s intentional to force you to redo these a couple of time until you’ve seen enough to make a plan.
There is some stuff you can do in the combat, even gun cancelling and alternating between the two combo trees, and the slide slash is pretty good for staggering, as is the running kick. But I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like there is enough juice here to make me want to do a second playthrough. I’d rather fire up any of the 4 Ninja Gaidens. Well, maybe not NG3.
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Lost Judgement wasn’t on my radar but it looks interesting. Might wishlist for later. I should probably work on the Yakuza collection I already own but haven’t played yet before buying more games in its vein, though…
I've been absolutely absorbed by this game the past week, having finally pulled the trigger on it after eyeing it for a long time. It's a 2.5D light horror roguelike, but there is so much more to it than it seems at first. Whenever I think I have a handle on it it keeps throwing new cool stuff at me, and the world building and story just keeps getting more interesting the more I play. It has a very unique vibe to it and a very distinctive and unique voice and direction.
The combat is clunky and janky yes, but you do get used to it and it gets a bit better after you start unlocking more tools, spells and weapons and start being able to actually make focused builds. The build crafting and customization is fun even when the mechanics of the combat itself is a little clunky. But this isn't a game you play for the combat anyway, but for the exploration, the lore, the story and the world building. Which is also partly told through item descriptions, Dark Souls-style.
Honestly I really don't want to spoil anything as the game has some interesting surprises so if you think this is your vibe I recommend just giving it a chance. It's very cool and I can see why it's such a beloved hidden gem. I can't wait to see what else it has up its sleeve.
Rise of the Ronin
I've been hooked on the open world slop juice. Honestly having a great time with it and I am kind of perplexed it didn't get better reviews. The combat is really good, there are some charming characters in the cast and the open world is not any better or any worse than your garden variety Ubisoft style open world game. I also quite enjoy the historical aspect of the story and while it isn't a documentary or anything it's still anchored in real events and authentic characters from the period.
The combat is the star though and it does have the special Team Ninja sauce I would say. I have some minor quibbles with it (enemy tracking is too accurate, especially when you've rapidly changed direction through some movement ability) but overall it's incredibly satisfying. The pace is super high and frenetic in some boss fights, at least if you're trying to play to your maximum. Boss attacks come fast and unrelenting and require you to parry, and when it's your time to punish you can squeeze out maximum performance by attacking at a similar pace, switching stances and weapons constantly and weaving martial arts. I've had some insanely hectic and satisfying duels in the Dojo.
Also the Dojo is a great feature, allowing you to fight 1-on-1 and even replay certain bosses, all in a setting where gear is neutralized, your items are limited to 5 healing item uses only and you don't have access to your pistol or rifle. It's a great balance where in the story missions you can breeze past bosses through buffs, tons of healing items, using your allies to help and using your guns, but then you still have the Dojo as a true test of skill.
I have been hit by open world fatigue in my Rise of the Ronin playthrough and so I needed an intermission. INMOST is on 70% sale and has been on my radar for a bit after being recommended to play it some time ago, so I finally got around to it. It's only a 5-6h game so it was perfect to sneak in, played through it in two sittings over two days.
I really loved this game. Puzzle platformers are not my genre of choice but this one felt perfectly fine for me. Not really any precision platforming to speak of and the puzzles were all intuitive enough that it never felt frustrating. Overall the gameplay felt smooth and tight and the generous save states on death further minimized frustration.
This game is not really about the gameplay though as much as it is a work of art. The pixel graphics are stunning, the art direction is perfect and the music is absolutely breathtaking. On top of that the writing is also quite good. The ending is a little on-the-nose for me for what is otherwise a nicely allegorical game, but even so it doesn't bring my ratings down. There are even some quite funny moments here and there, despite the otherwise heavy themes.
Recommended for anyone that likes artsy indie games, especially if you enjoy darker themes and depressing vibes.
Wishlisted this when I saw the announcement trailer so I had to check out the demo when it dropped last week. It was... okay. It was much worse than it looked from the trailer and worse than I had hoped in general. It's a shame because the concept is great and has tons of potential. Fishing and horror is a great combination that fits together perfectly. Unfortunately the fishing mechanics are too simple to be really engaging and the horror is pretty bland. It also goes too hard and fast into shock value and jump scares and whatnot instead of doing what a horror fishing game in an isolated setting should do: slowly build suspense and unsettling atmosphere and work with creepy environmental storytelling.
I'll still keep it wishlist to keep track of it as I like fishing games but I am much less hopeful now than when I first saw the trailer.
I like Civ V personally. I like the hexagons and I like the one-unit-per-tile instead of death stacks, even though the AI isn't great at using it without community patches. I also like its visuals the most.
It also has the beloved fan mod Vox Populi, if you want to get into all that.
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Motorsport Manager is a banger, it's a classic. Definitely recommend it if you're into management games.
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It's a game where you have a grid of tiles, and if you slide one tile so that you line up 3 (or more) of the same symbol, they disappear - and you get some points, typically. Think Candy Crush, although there is multitude of other variations too.
Now, Titanium Court is a lot more than just that. It just uses the match-3 framework to riff on a sort of autobattler/tower defense roguelike gameplay loop, which works surprisingly well on a mechanical level.
That is also just the basic gameplay loop of it, however. There is a lot more to the game than that, but again all of that is best discovered first hand.
I'm still deep in the Withering Rooms trenches - almost literally now (although I can't say more without spoilers). The game is just absolutely excellent, and I am even starting to get used to the janky and clunky combat. I'm in Chapter 4 now and starting to get some kind of idea of a possibile endgame, although I'm sure there are plenty of more mysteries and secrets and twists to uncover. I also know there are multiple endings, but I am still unsure what decides which one you get as I've just been playing blind and I don't feel like I've locked into anything yet.
I know it's a completely different game and a completely different vibe, but this game's exploration is giving me almost similar vibes to back when I was first exploring Dark Souls 1. An interesting and dangerous world, weird ass NPCs, distinct art direction, mysteries and secrets, world building and story in item descriptions, locations that connect through shortcuts and link back to previous areas... It's just great.
Next on the agenda is exploring the extremely cursed attic, but I think I might need a dedicated gear loadout for it as my default set gets overwhelmed by curse damage after just a couple of seconds in there. After that's it's the endgame, I guess? Can't wait to see how it ends.
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Interesting. Haven't heard of that but it looks neat. Might be the type of game I'd rather watch a Let's Play of than play myself, though. Also...
the voice acting and dialogue feels ... I dunno, it's not "bad", but it feels a bit "off", like it's written by "semi-edgy artsyfartsy" type, and the dialogue is performed by aliens who only got the tldr version of how to act human.
are you sure they're not just... Finnish?
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The game has no identity, it's literally just stuff the team saw in other popular games thrown in haphazardly. It's a soup. RDR2 had trains? Chuck it in there boys. Same with the random Zelda sky islands. There is some fun to be had in it I think and it seems to appeal to a certain type of gamer, but I wouldn't expect the game to make any sense.
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Not a Souls game but Alan Wake 2 has some great liminal spaces.
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Okay, fair enough haha!
Also I love Finland for the record, the joke was just right there you know...
That's very fair, well explained! I think I may be underestimating the areas of DS1 simply because I know them so well. Some of them are treacherous and it definitely has more opportunities to get stuck for example, like accidentally touching the bottom bonfire in Great Hollow before the Lordvessel or whatnot. At the same time the bosses are so *so* simple.
Also yeah I know what you mean. I think the lack of rough edges is part of why some people don't like DS3 so much and others like it the most out of the trilogy. It's definitely the most "smooth sailing". And I really don't like how the game is just one long corridor.
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I tried playing it last year and really wanted to like it as it's a classic and the comedy, art direction and vibe are all great. It just felt like the gameplay was ass. I don't think it's aged well.
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Sorry, I forgot to answer but thanks for the reply! I do like Team Ninja so I might pick it up on a sale.
How are you finding Stranger Of Paradise? Since getting into Ninja Gaiden this past year I've come into contact with some more CAG players and some of them talked it up as having really great combat.
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Mine as well, although not super high up on it. I keep hearing good things though.
Final Fantasy XV is the greatest fishing minigame for me personally. Haven't played Okami though.
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Where did you quit in Fallout 2? I love it but the opening hours are pretty rough, even fans of it meme about the temple of trials and the general first few hours.
I do definitely think you're right that FO2 defined the franchise, it's where they moved from a slightly more grim and serious post-apocalyptic tone in the first game to a more humourous style with more pop culture references and wacky stuff. Fans or the first two games tend to be divided over that, with some saying Fallout 1 is superior because of the different tone. I can see the argument, but I love Fallout 2 personally.
There are some great mods for it too, not just Restoration Project Updated but Talking Heads and Talking Heads Actually Talk are both incredible fan made mods that blend right in.
I got sidetracked this last week. The plan was twofold: finish Chrono Ark (first ending) and finish Ninja Gaiden 4 to get ready for the DLC that dropped a day ago.
Instead I got completely hooked on Rise of the Ronin. It's been a hot minute since I played some Open World Slop and it is hitting me just right. With all the shit going on right now it's been pleasant to have some mind numbing collect-a-thon gameplay, at least thus far.
The comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima are very natural to make, but honestly I'm personally preferring Ronin. GoT wins in graphics and presentation, but the combat in Ronin is a lot more fun and deep. Both use stance switching in a sort of rock-paper-scissors system, but Ronin has a lot more skill expression given that the stance relationships only matter defensively. You counter the enemy stance while parrying, but you're free to use whatever when going on the offensive. I find this much more satisfying than the GoT system of "pick the right stance and win", and Ronin also has a lot more active skills to use, especially when you start chaining stance and weapon switching mid combat.
In terms of writing I am still fairly early in the story, but I like the use of authentic history and real historical characters and one thing again where I prefer Ronin over GoT is that there is a bit more humour, levity and charm to the characters. GoT is fine with its writing but everything is so serious and dour all the time and delivered in an almost monotone way that it just wore me out over the playthrough.
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I have half an idea of going back and replaying Underground 2 and Most Wanted (2005) some day but with mods. I think both have RTX Remix mods by now? Regardless, great games.
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If you want something with a bit more story I will keep proselytizing for Chrono Ark. If you enjoy roguelike deckbuilders like StS then this is one of the best ones from a pure game mechanics perspective, and it also has an entire visual novel baked in with a surprisingly interesting story.
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Well, probably will need a bit of a break after this one. I get fatigued if I play too many of these in a row, same with Soulslikes.
How much better is Yotei to Tsushima, or is it just more of the same? I thought Tsushima was okay but I'm less high on it than most people. Especially the writing wore me down with the constant dour monotone delivery and serious tone. It was also too long for how little variety it had in both writing and quest design.
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Hey, I’m glad to see the return of Anomaly! Looking forward to hearing more about that playthrough, whenever it happens!
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Sometimes you gotta be impatient. Remedy is one of the few developers I would be tempted by as well.
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I’ve been playing a bit of Roadwarden this week. Actually, I only played about 6 hours of it, then I gave up and started to listen to this delightful playthrough as an audiobook instead. I think Roadwarden is probably a good game. I think the problem may be that my attention span is just destroyed. But I am not yet sure.
How should I describe this game? How about this: have you ever played Pentiment and thought to yourself “nonono, this is too action packed and too interesting!”. Or what about… have you ever wished there was a game with as much text as Disco Elysium, but without any voice acting, visual art, humour, mind-blowing world building, charm or top quality near-poetic prose?
Roadwarden takes a lot of inspiration from the Witcher setting. It’s a low-magic, low-fantasy world filled with dangerous monsters, and you’re playing as a sort of peacekeeper. But instead of being a magical mutant with superpowers and steeped in centuries of interesting lore, here you’re instead playing as… just a guy. Just some dude meant to scout out an unmapped peninsula, get to know the locals and report back to your superiors in the big city who want to colonise (or at least exploit) it.
And that’s kind of just… the whole game. Granted, I’m not all the way through listening to the playthrough yet. But you’re just riding around, reading mundane descriptions of mundane things, helping locals with mundane tasks.
One thing I want to praise though, is how the game does player-customizable world building. At certain points you’ll get some questions about certain minor aspects of the world, and you can pick an answer out of usually 5-7. And whatever you pick will be the reality in your playthrough. Are people in the capital wearing tunics or furs? Is the capital well off or poverty stricken? What happened to that old inn on a street off the harbour? It’s something I haven’t seen before, and it does make every playthrough a little more unique. I found it neat.
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PugJesus is missed every single day. We really just can’t have nice things, I guess. If you’re reading this PJ, you were a real one. I hope you’ve found happiness elsewhere.
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Yeah. There are games out there with worse writing, but honestly that is not saying much. And when your “game” is literally only text, that text better be top fucking quality. And this isn’t really bad enough to be entertaining, it’s mostly just dull.
I have a lot of qualms, but there are two main problems:
Protagonist has extremely weak (almost nonexistent) personality and internal motivation
The overarching plot has no early hook, no emotional investment and no stakes.
Again if we take the Witcher comparison: imagine The Witcher 3 but you play as a cardboard cutout instead of Geralt, and the whole Ciiri storyline is completely absent. You just ride around doing contracts.